Fungi Trail - Get to know your parasols and puffballs this autumn

Our fungi trail is now up and running. we've marked up a suggested route around the wooded-heath and labelled some of the fungi to get you started....

Appearing mysteriously overnight in the dank and dark places of the earth, it’s no wonder that there are so many magical tales about fungi. In Britain we’ve always been a bit suspicious of mushrooms and toadstools (there is no difference between the two), associating them with malevolent magic – there are Devil’s Fingers, Witches’ Eggs, Green Elfcups and Fairy Bonnets.

Perhaps the most famous toadstool is the red and white spotted Fly Agaric, familiar from story books featuring pictures of a toad or elf perched atop its colourful form. This spectacular toadstool can be found readily at this time of year growing amongst the autumn leaves on the woodland edge.

Fly agaric

The circular growth formation favoured by some species – and most particularly the Fairy Ring Champignon – has been attributed to fairies dancing, lightning strikes and again witchcraft (with the rings known as hag tracks or in French ronds de sorcieres). Whilst we now know that the appearance of the fruiting bodies results from a natural growth pattern of fungal threads that spread outwards from the original fungal spore, I’d still be careful not to stand in the middle of one lest I fall asleep for one hundred years or be whisked off to the land of the wee folk!

Perhaps our suspicions are well founded, after all some fungi is deadly poisonous; consumption of just small amounts of the Death Cap, Panther Cap and the splendidly-named Destroying Angel could result in a painful death. But fungi can be immensely useful too. They are nature’s recyclers, many are symbiotic with the trees with which they grow, some are very tasty, help us to make beer and even produce life-saving medicines.

But most of all I enjoy fungi for their beauty, colour, variety and fabulous names. Kicking through the rusty red and golden leaves on a walk through the wood you come across the delicate Amethyst Deceiver – a beautiful regal purple toadstool. Growing amongst the moss on the trunk of an ancient oak is the smallest but most perfectly formed Mycena or Bonnet fungi. In a hidden corner of the trail, under the Western Hemlocks is the Collared Earthstar which emerges as a bulb before splitting open to reveal its star-shaped form.

Mycena pseudocorticola

This year I’ll be searching through the woodland in search of Scurfy Twiglets, Candlesnuff and Yellow Brain. We’ve just set up our fungi trail leading you through the wooded heath part of the nature reserve identifying some of the marvellous mushrooms and terrific toadstools. I’ve created a ‘top 21’ fungi sheet which you can download and print or save to a smart phone – I hope you enjoy it!

Please remember that with so many different species in the UK, identification is not easy and I certainly would not recommend picking mushrooms to eat. It just isn’t worth the risk. Never eat any wild mushroom until an expert mycologist has checked your identification. Whilst I’ve labelled some of the fungi around our trail I am an enthusiast rather than an expert, and different species of fungi can pop up quickly next to an existing sign!